In accordance with our usual practice, Tate & Lyle PLC issues the following update for the year ended 31 March 2014 ahead of the announcement of full year results on 29 May 2014.
In line with the guidance issued in our interim management statement on 13 February 2014, we continue to expect Group adjusted profit before tax for the year ended 31 March 2014, at constant rates of exchange, to be broadly in line with the comparative period.
FULL YEAR OPERATING PERFORMANCE – CONTINUING OPERATIONS
In Speciality Food Ingredients, we continue to expect both volume and sales growth to be in line with the wider speciality food ingredients market, with strong volume growth in emerging markets and Europe partially offset by the US. As expected, operating profit growth in this division has been held back by the more competitive market for SPLENDA® Sucralose.
Within Bulk Ingredients, we continue to expect operating profit for the full year to be lower than the comparative period as a result of the soft beverage season in the US, which reduced demand for liquid corn sweeteners, and lower returns from co-products. The protracted severe cold weather in the US has also held back the performance of this division somewhat in the final quarter, despite the actions taken by our manufacturing and supply chain teams who succeeded in partially mitigating the full impact of this on our operations.
BALANCE SHEET
As noted in the February interim management statement, the payment for new crop corn held in our silos has resulted in a net cash outflow in the final quarter. As a result, net debt at 31 March 2014 will, as expected, be higher than the level reported at 31 December 2013 (£253 million).
END
Conference call:
A conference call will be held today at 8:00am BST, hosted by Javed Ahmed, Chief Executive and Tim Lodge, Chief Financial Officer. Participants are requested to dial in at least 10 minutes before the commencement of the call.
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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7257 2110 or Mobile: +44 (0) 7500 100 320
E-mail: [email protected]
Nick Hasell, FTI Consulting
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About Tate & Lyle:
Tate & Lyle is a global provider of ingredients and solutions to the food, beverage and other industries, operating from over 30 production facilities around the world.
Tate & Lyle operates through two global business units, Speciality Food Ingredients and Bulk Ingredients, supported by the Innovation and Commercial Development group. The Group's strategy is to become the leading global provider of Speciality Food Ingredients through a disciplined focus on growth, and by driving Bulk Ingredients for sustained cash generation to fuel this growth.
Speciality Food Ingredients consists of three platforms: Texturants, which includes speciality starches and stabilisers; Sweeteners, which comprises nutritive sweeteners and our range of no-calorie sweeteners including SPLENDA® Sucralose; and our Health and Wellness portfolio which includes speciality fibres and our salt-reduction offering. Additionally, our food systems business provides a wide variety of blended ingredient solutions.
Tate & Lyle Bulk Ingredients includes bulk sweeteners, industrial starches and fermentation products (primarily acidulants). Corn co-products from both divisions are primarily sold as animal feed.
Tate & Lyle is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TATE.L. American Depositary Receipts trade under TATYY. In the year to 31 March 2013, Tate & Lyle sales totalled £3.3 billion. http://www.tateandlyle.com.
SPLENDA® is a trademark of McNeil Nutritionals, LLC.
Assuming an average USD:GBP rate of 1.59 for the financial year ending 31 March 2014, we estimate that the impact of exchange translation will be around -1% on our adjusted profit before tax of £327 million reported in the year to 31 March 2013
